Peter James Biography:

Peter James is a British best selling writer of fictional crime novels. He has written 25 novels that have been translated into over 35 languages. His series featuring Detective Superintendent Roy Grace have sold over 14 million copies world wide. He has had six UK Sunday Times #1 books consecutively due to this series.

Peter James was born on August 22, 1948 in Brighton, Sussex, England. His mother Cornelia James was the Queen’s Glovemaker. His father ran the business as well as an accountant. His sister Genevieve now runs the company along with her husband. He attended Charterhouse School and later attended Ravensbourne Film School.

James spent a few years working in North America as a film producer and screenwriter. He got his start in 1970 on the Canadian children’s television show Polka Dot Door as an errand boy and later writer. He cofounded Movision Pictures in the nineties. James became a successful producer of 26 films. The first movie he produced was 1971’s The Corpse Grinders.

In addition to Corpse Grinders, Peter James has also produced such movies as Under Milk Wood, Dead of Night, Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things, Spanish Fly, Jericho Mansions, Head in the Clouds, and The Bridge of San Luis Rey. He was the executive producer of 2004’s take on Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. The movie starred Jeremy Irons as Antonio and Al Pacino as Shylock. Joseph Fiennes played Bassanio. He was a successful film producer, but he gave it all up to write his detective novels about Detective Roy Grace.

There are a total of nine books in the Roy Grace Series. The series starts with the first novel Dead Simple. Published in 2005, Dead Simple focuses on charming, everything comes easy, good looking Michael Harrison. He has everything, including his new fiancee Ashley. What starts out as an innocent, lively night of celebrating out with his guy friends turns potentially serious as Michael finds himself enclosed in a coffin with only a few things to get by. He has a tiny breathing tube and a flashlight, but his friends are coming back to get him. Just a little good pay back. Until their truck is hit by a drunk driver, and all four of Michael’s friends end up fatally injured. Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is brought on to the case and grows suspicious when the one friend who wasn’t out celebrating refuses to collaborate on the case. All of a sudden, a motive surfaces, and Michael’s near accident may not be so accidental after all.

In Looking Good Dead, published in 2006, Tom Bryce finds an apparently lost cd and decides to try to return it to its owner. But when his mission to return the cd leads to him witnessing a ghastly homicide, his family is threatened if he decides to go to the police. Meanwhile, Roy Grace is still haunted by his missing wife. It’s been nearly ten years since she disappeared. Furthermore he messed up in his last case and now has a supervisor on his every move and risks getting transferred. Bryce musters up the courage to make a statement to the police regardless of blackmail. However, when someone threatens to murder you, you had better pay attention.

Peter James is developing Dead Simple into a feature length film. Hugh Bonneville of the PBS period drama Downton Abbey has signed on to play the widowed Detective. His books were going to be adapted for tv but James cancelled the option after development stretched on too long. James is producing with James Simpson with Daniel Eckhart bringing the detective’s story to the big screen.
Peter James’ first novel was published in 1981 with Dead Letter Drop. Dead Letter Drop follows a British agent named Max Flynn who finds out he is meant to go undercover to spy on his comrades. While he doesn’t want to, it appears someone else shares these wishes. They may even be willing to kill to make them come true.

He has also written Atom Bomb Angel, where terrorists plot to detonate a nuclear power plant in Britain. Then there’s Billionaire, Traveling Man, Possession, Dreamer, Sweet Heart, Host, Alchemist, Getting Wired, The Truth, Denial, Faith, The Perfect Murder, Perfect People, and Short Shockers and the Roy Grace novel Dead Man’s Time, both of which were published in 2013.
Dead Man’s Time calls Roy Grace in once more. This time it’s for a burglary that has taken over a million pounds worth of loot. It has also left an elderly man who lives there dying. As Grace shows up on the scene, it’s clear that the family does not care so much about the valuables so much as one valuable in particular. They will do anything to get it. They don’t care about breaking the law and Grace is thrown into a hot pursuit that takes him through Europe and eventually all the way to New York.

Host was adapted into a made for tv movie by the US Network in 1998. Dr. Joe Messenger, played by Peter Gallagher, gives into the seduction of a terminally ill woman. He later finds that she has uploaded herself into a computer. Now she threatens to destroy his family from beyond the grave.

ITV made Prophecy into a feature in 1995. A Ouija Board, an archaeologist, and a widower with his son are all connected. Then they begin to remember one night in the basement with the Ouija Board, and are faced with the prospect that maybe the prophecies are coming true.

Britain’s Channel Five adapted James’ The Alchemists into a made for tv miniseries. Connor Molloy sets out to prove that the company Bentik Lange Pharmaceuticals murdered his father.
James’ novels may deal with scandal, violence, danger, and intrigue, but the drama doesn’t always stay on the page. A woman in her thirties has been stalking Peter James for ten years, following him across the country. “She is everywhere I go,” James said. “[She] is unhinged. She genuinely believes she has ownership of me.” James receives constant emails of threatening tone and long length and she states that she cannot live without James. He has admitted that he looks for her when he does signings and worries that his writing will one day upset her and she will do something irrational.

Peter James spends his time at his house in Sussex and his apartment in Notting Hill, London.

So Bad It's Good 2: Electric Bookaloo is our March book of the month. Written by Edward Scimia, this is the 2nd book which reviews some of the worst movies ever - those movies that as the book title suggests, are so bad, it's good. Read More.

Featured Author

March'ss author of the month is the one, the only Dean Koontz. His most recent book in the Odd Thomas series, "Saint Odd", came out recently. If you have never read the Odd Thomas series of books yet, you're REALLY missing out. They're not for everyone - but read more about Odd Thomas here and give the series a try.

Featured Character

The character of the month for March 2015 is Sam Capra. If you are a fan of the likes of Jack Reacher, Mitch Rapp etc - then the Capra series is well worth reading. I read all of the books in the space of a week I loved them that much. There are currently 4 novels and 1 short story. You can buy the first book in the series - Thriller - for just $6.64.

Did You Know…

There was a strong possibility that we would never have got a classic book such as The Da Vinci Code. Author Dan Brown was a pop musician initially, and even relocated to Hollywood in an attempt to continue that career. However his kids version of electronic music never caught on, and he ended up becoming an author.